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TA^ BLESSED 
DAMOZEL I 

% i I 

DANTE GABRIEL j 

ROSSETTI I 



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DONE INTO A BROCHURE BY 
THE ROYCROFTERS, AT THEIR 
PRINT SHOP, WHICH IS IN 
EAST AURORA, NEW YORK 

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Copyright 1917 
By The Roycrofters 



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The BLESSED DAMOZEL 

tHE blessed damozel leaned out 
From the gold bar of Heaven; 
Her eyes were deeper than the depth 
Of waters stilled at even; 
She had three lilies in her hand, 

And the stars in her hair were seven. 

Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, 

No wrought flowers did adorn. 
But a white rose of Mary's gift. 

For service meetly worn; 
Her hair that lay along her back 

Was yellow like ripe corn. 

Her seemed she scarce had been a day 

One of God's choristers; 
The wonder was not yet quite gone 

From that still look of hers; 
Albeit, to them she left, her day 

Had counted as ten years. 

(To one, it is ten years of years. 

. . . Yet now, and in this place. 
Surely she leaned o'er me; her hair 

Fell all about my face. . . . 
Nothing; the autumn fall of leaves. 

The whole year sets apace.) 



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It was the rampart of God's house 

That she was standing on; 
By God built over the sheer depth 

The which is Space begun; 
So high, that looking downward thence 

She scarce could see the sun. 



It lies in Heaven, across the flood 

Of ether, as a bridge. 
Beneath, the tides of day and night 

With flame and darkness ridge 
The void, as low as where this earth 

Spins like a fretful midge. 

Heard hardly, some of her new friends 

Amid their loving games 
Spake evermore among themselves 

Their virginal chaste names; 
And the soiils mounting up to God 

Went by her like thin flames. 

And still she bowed herself, and stooped 

Out of the circling charm. 
Until her bosom must have made 

The bar she leaned on warm. 
And the lilies lay as if asleep 

Along her bended arm. 



From the fixed place of Heaven she saw 

Time like a pulse shake fierce 
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove 

Within the gulf to pierce 
Its path; and now she spoke as when 

The stars sang in their spheres. 

The sun was gone now; the curled moon 

Was like a little feather 
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now 

She spoke through the still weather. 
Her voice was like the voice the stars 

Had when they sang together. 

(Ah, sweet! Even now, in that bird's song, 

Strove not her accents there, 
Fain to be hearken'd? When those bells 

Possessed the mid-day air, 
Strove not her steps to reach my side 

Down all the echoing stair.'^) 

" I wish that he were come to me. 

For he will come," she said. 
" Have I not pray'd in heaven? — on earth, 
^Jx)rd, Lord, has he not pray'd.' 
Ar^^lptwo prayers a perfect strength.' 

And shall I feel afraid.'* 



" When round his head the aureole clings 

And he is clothed in white, 
I '11 take his hand and go with him 

To the deep wells of light; 
We will step down as to a stream. 

And bathe there in God's sight. 

" We two will stand beside that shrine. 

Occult, withheld, untrod. 
Whose lamps are stirred continually 

With prayer sent up to God; 
And see our old prayers, granted, melt. 

Each like a little cloud. 



" We two will lie i' the shadow of 

That living mystic tree. 
Within whose secret growth the Dove 

Is sometimes felt to be. 
While every leaf that His plumes touch 

Said His name audibly. 

"And I myself will teach to him, 

I myself, lying so. 
The songs I sing here; which his voice 

Shall pause in, hushed and slow. 
And find some knowledge at each pause. 

Or some new thing to know." 



(Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st! 

Yea, one wast thou with me 
That once of old. But shall God lift 

To endless unity 
The soul whose likeness with thy soul 

Was but its love for thee?) 

" We two," she said, " will seek the groves 

Where the lady Mary is. 
With her five handmaidens, whose names 

Are five sweet symphonies, 
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen, 

Margaret and Rosalys. 

" Circle wise sit they, with bound locks 

And foreheads garlanded; 
Into the fine cloth white like flame. 

Weaving the golden thread. 
To fashion the birth-robes for them 

Who are just born, being dead. 

" He shall fear, haply, and be dumb: 

Then will I lay my cheek 
To his, and tell about our love. 

Not once abash' d or weak: 
And the dear Mother will approve 

My pride, and let me speak. 



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" Herself shall bring us, hand in hand. 
To Him round whom all souls 

Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads 
Bowed with their aureoles : 

And angels meeting us shall sing 
To their citherns and citoles. 



" There will I ask of Christ the Lord 
Thus much for him and me: — 

Only to live as once on earth 
With Love — only to be, 

And then a while, for ever now 
Together, I and he." 

She gazed and listened, and then said, 
Less sad of speech than mild — 

"All this is when he comes." She ceased. 
The light thrill'd toward her, fiU'd 

With angels in strong level flight. 
Her eyes prayed, and she smiled. 

(I saw her smile.) But soon their path 
Was vague in distant spheres; 

And then she cast her arms along 
The golden barriers. 

And laid her face between her hands. 
And wept. (I heard her tears.) 



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